Why the German state is failing
No clarification of Nord Stream attack?
by Robert Seidel
(25 April 2023) Like an elephant in the room, the question of how it can be that leading German politicians and judges accept the main artery of Germany's energy supply, the Nord Stream pipelines, be sabotaged, but the perpetrators not prosecuted.
Since the publication of the US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, the origin of the spectacular attack on the Nord Stream pipeline has been obvious. The planning for this terrorist act took place with the apparent approval of US President Joe Biden even before the Ukraine war. Together with Norwegian, Danish, and Swedish organisations, i.e., German “alliance partners”, the blowing up of the pipeline was probably carried out in a secret operation.1
Several billion euros in damages
The German government has so far failed to assume its responsibility. One also hears next to nothing from the German public prosecutor’s office. The results of an international investigation have been kept secret for months and may not be viewed. Cooperation by Russian experts has been ruled out.
Several billion euros of investments in the pipelines and in the subsequent infrastructure were deliberately destroyed. The future of Germany as an industrial location, but also that of Europe, has been seriously affected by this.
The oath of office of the German Chancellor and his ministers to “avert harm from the German people”2 does not seem to apply. Seemingly inactive, Germany is being accompanied to its doom by an apparently incompetent government.
Why is the government incompetent?
What are the causes of this catastrophic government failure that is holding the entire population hostage? Why is the German government reacting so weakly? Why are the members of the Bundestag not exerting their appropriate pressure on the government? Why is the media silent? Has Germany degenerated into a banana republic? How could it come about that a leading economic nation like Germany is led by people who fail to live up to their responsibilities to such a blatant extent?
What Germany has experienced and is experiencing in recent months is leading to economic and thus human misery. Not only an irresponsible energy policy that leads to economic decline and mass poverty, an immigration policy that causes social tensions and endless conflict potentials, but also a foreign policy that leads this country being responsible for two world wars, straight into a third one. What is going wrong?
A party state
For decades, the political party researcher Hans-Herbert von Arnim has intensively investigated the question of how it is possible that there are people in a government at the levers of power who obviously do not live up to their responsibilities. He is interested in the question of why the political establishment in Germany distances itself from its voters and makes decisions that go against the original electorate.3
Von Arnim notes that over the decades, the established parties had increasingly extended their influence on the state apparatus, especially to influential offices. This also happens across “hostile” party lines (increase in parliamentary allowances, party funding, appointments to posts in the judiciary, administration, etc.).3
The party, the party ...
The leadership of a party places candidates on its electoral list in such a way that they are assured a place in parliament. Thus, the choice is limited from the outset to the candidates selected by the party leadership. MPs who have been selected by party leaders find themselves in parliament. Selection takes place from above and not from the people. Applied to the candidate, this means that he or she adapts to party powers to obtain a promising position on the election list and then tries not to lose this place. Increasingly, even high state offices are occupied by party politicians. The state became the prey of the parties.3
The party state has no real political opposition. Opponents such as new and small parties are harshly thwarted, even to the point of being monitored by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, which is run by suitable guarantors.3
Big brother
How can parties like the Greens still develop under these circumstances? After all, they were in open opposition to the party state at the beginning. While in their founding phase they succeeded in bundling social and ecological demands from the '68 movement (pacifism, environmental protection, social justice, etc.) and exerting pressure as a new political force. Today, they quite obviously stand for the blatant opposite: they actively wage war, they impoverish the population, and environmental protection takes place only according to expediency.
The turn of the Greens …
Symbolic for the turn of the Greens is the trip of Joschka Fischer (The Greens) together with Gerhard Schröder (SPD) to Washington for the inauguration of the new red-green coalition in autumn 1998. Immediately after this visit, the war in Kosovo with active German participation was possible. Gerhard Schröder later said it was illegal under international law. Opposition to the war would have been much greater under a CDU government.
… steppingstone of a career
The closing of ranks with the tough US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in turn enabled the meteoric rise of J. Fischer in the international political arena as an “elder statesman”. The tactics of the Greens are also according to the expectations on the other side of the Atlantic.
Elite training centres and ...
The election of a completely unqualified Annalena Baerbock as German foreign minister made the influence of international elite training centres on German political personnel an issue. Like the career of a von der Leyen or a Cem Özdemir, her path led to the “top” in an almost miraculous way. There is hardly an influential politician in Germany who has not auditioned or trained with the Young Leaders.4
“Atlantic Bridge” as a dog leash
A somewhat different institution than the Young Leaders is the “Atlantic Bridge”. If you want to build a political career in Germany, you must show up here. There are other similar institutions. Orientation and dependencies are predetermined. The voters’ opinion and their welfare no longer play a major role in view of the transatlantic guidelines.5
… spied on and controlled …
Moreover, whoever makes political and economic decisions in Germany is closely watched. There is no major relevant decision that is not registered and influenced by the other side of the Atlantic. In 2013, the then German Chancellor Angela Merkel's personal cell phone had been tapped by Washington. After it became known, her statement was almost characteristic of the state of control: “Spying among friends is not done at all”. That was all. The offence had no consequences for big brother.
The founder of the Austrian Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Counterterrorism, Gert R. Polli, describes the full extent of mass espionage in his book “Deutschland zwischen den Fronten. Wie Europa zum Spielball von Politik und Geheimdiensten wird” (“Germany between fronts. How Europe comes to be at the mercy of intelligence services.)6 Not only politics, but also the economy is and was systematically spied on.
… or “turned around”
Finally, let us not forget the more recent German past, for example the “Rosewood Files” from the archives of the Stasi, the files on informants of the Ministry for State Security MfS of the GDR. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, they were transferred to CIA headquarters in Langley. Anyone who had spied for East Berlin in the West until 1989, and who might have held an influential political office, was now “turned around”.
Not to mention the customary possibilities of foreign “services” to carry out blackmail. This does not only happen in agent thrillers (“honey traps”, faked pornography files etc. ...).
“Averting harm from the German people”
Anyone who wants to make a career in German politics can only do so within very narrow guidelines. Whoever does not follow them, be it as a representative of the people in the federal or state parliament, a high judge or civil servant in “decisive” questions, ends up on the sidelines at best. The motto is not to “avert harm from the German people”, but to make decisions even against the people. The numerous personalities with integrity, who are to be found in every party and in every office, are explicitly excluded from this and shall be acknowledged at this point!
It does not come as a surprise that in politics and justice decisions are made which violate conscience and knowledge of the individual person. Does he or she draw any consequences? What could be the consequence? Resigning? Renouncing pension rights? Putting up with a media smear campaign? Disappointing “friends”? Personality and character of the individual are required here.
“The discerning heart” and the “great band of robbers”
In the end, it is the individual who must answer to his or her conscience. This personal experience was particularly intense in Germany in the years 1933 to 1945.
In September 2011, Joseph Ratzinger, as Pope Benedict XVI, had pointed out to the members of the German Bundestag and the German government the essence of “good” government. He quoted the wish of young King Solomon: “Give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong”. (1 Kings 3:9). Solomon had not wished for success, wealth, long life or the destruction of his enemies, but instead to be a good king. Today, however, more than ever, the question arises whether the majority of the German people’s representatives are still pursuing this human concern of serving the common good at all? To point out the consequences, Ratzinger quoted Augustine: “To be imperial is to be a successful band of robbers”.7
Direct democratic elements ...
Von Arnim does not appeal to the conscience of those in power. To counteract party state failure, he proposes the introduction of more direct democratic elements.8 Decisions on issues at stake should be made by the citizens themselves. After all, they are the ones affected. It is obvious that today’s political personnel do not have the much-vaunted expertise and the necessary integrity to govern any “better”. Quite to the contrary. Germany could hardly be governed much worse.
... against political arbitrariness
Many catastrophically wrong decisions would have failed at the ballot box, if not before. The mere fact that a decision must first be approved by most of the citizens would dispel many a fixed political pipe dream in advance. Decisions must be made plausible if they are to find a majority. The mere possibility of exerting direct influence has an effect on the state. The pressure in a more direct democratic constitution is high enough that political tasks are to be increasingly solved in the sense of the electorate. Arbitrariness, such as political instructions to law enforcing agencies, would not be accepted.
1 Seymour Hersh. How the U.S. Joined Norway in Destroying the Nord Stream Pipelines. https://swiss-standpoint.ch/news-detailansicht-en-international/how-america-together-with-norway-took-out-the-nord-stream-pipelines.html
The trailing fake news of alleged Ukrainian saboteurs quickly proved to be another red herring. Cf. Scott Ritter. The Nord Stream-Andromeda Cover-Up. https://www.schweizer-standpunkt.ch/news-detailansicht-en-international/the-nord-stream-andromeda-cover-up.html
2 The oath of office for the German chancellor, government, and president reads, "I swear that I will dedicate my efforts to the well-being of the German people, promote their welfare, protect them from harm, uphold and defend the Basic Law and the laws of the Federation, perform my duties conscientiously, and do justice to all. So, help me God”. The religious affirmation may be omitted. (Article 56 sentence 2 GG).
3 Hans-Herbert von Arnim. Die Hebel der Macht und wer sie bedient. Parteienherrschaft statt Volkssouveränität. Munich 2017
4 C. E. Nyder (author collective). Young Global Leaders. Die Saat von Klaus Schwab. Rottenburg 2022
5 Friederike Beck. Das Guttenberg Dossier. Das Wirken transatlantischer Netzwerke und ihre Einflussnahme auf deutsche Eliten. Ingelheim 2011
6 Gert R. Polli. Deutschland zwischen den Fronten. Wie Europa zum Spielball von Politik und Geheimdiensten wird. Munich 2017
7 Pope Benedict XVI Ansprache vor dem deutschen Bundestag, 22 September 2011, www.youtube.com > watch?v=dArmbkjY_GI
8 Hans-Herbert von Arnim. op. cit. p. 303 ff.